Blame citizens.
We have now marketed just about everything: education, care, environment, culture, data, science, research, '— even attention, I would like to add to that — 'and almost nobody is still committed to public values.'

All of a sudden, I thought, no, it's worse. We do attach to public values, but we have now individualized them to the bone. Public values are no longer a public matter or task; we, the citizens, are now personally held responsible for maintaining them. If we don't, it will be charged to us as personal failure. It's never up to the market — always up to us.


That's why you should be ashamed of using a plastic straw, but the soda industry may stop a tripod rule for small plastic bottles. That's why you're wrong if you're heating too hot, but Shell can safely pump up billions of gallons of oil: that's good for 'our' economy. That is why it is terrible if someone in the assistance earns a penny somewhere, but no one at government level is ever awake from the multi-million dollar fraud with dividend tax, or money laundering on the Amsterdam Zuidas.

Reducing public issues to personal choices: that is also political.

Market thinking